A True Story By Des
If I had a dollar for every major problem that hit the business or the family hard, I would have a fair collection by now.
Over more than 20 years, AutoFX WA has had moments that felt like a business going through COVID or a recession more than once. Not just one hard season, but several. Then, between those bigger setbacks, there were plenty of smaller mistakes as well. Some were business mistakes. Some were timing mistakes. Some were lessons I only understood properly years later.
Each one had a cost.
Sometimes money.
Sometimes time.
Sometimes confidence.
And sometimes it felt like years were spent just trying to get back onto the path of moving forward again.
When a business is just a business, maybe that is easier to handle. But AutoFX WA was never just a business to me. It came from something much deeper. It came from passion, from pride in the work, and from a part of me that genuinely wanted to build something meaningful.
That is why the setbacks hurt.
Not just the big ones.
Even the smaller cuts hurt when the business comes from the heart.
For a long time, I took failure the wrong way. I thought every mistake meant something bad about me. I carried it too heavily. Instead of seeing a setback as something to learn from, I saw it as proof that I had failed as a person.
That mindset can hold you back more than the mistake itself.
Over time, I had to learn a different way to look at it.
A mistake is not the end of the story.
It is a lesson.
Sometimes an expensive lesson.
Sometimes a painful lesson.
Sometimes a lesson you wish you had learnt earlier.
But still, a lesson.
The real mistake is not making mistakes. The real mistake is becoming so afraid of failure that you stop trying, stop learning, stop changing and stop moving forward.
That took me a long time to understand.
It took more than the first 15 years in business before I started to properly change the message in my own head. Instead of punishing myself for every setback, I began trying to say, “That was a hard lesson, but it was a lesson. Learn from it. Do not repeat it. Keep moving.”
That is a much better way to live.
As I have gotten older, I have also made it a point to be kinder to myself. Not careless. Not arrogant. Just kinder.
There is a difference.
Being kind to yourself does not mean avoiding responsibility. It means accepting the lesson without destroying yourself over it. It means being honest about what went wrong, making the changes needed, and allowing yourself to keep growing.
That has been one of the biggest lessons of all.
In business, in detailing, and in life, you cannot move forward if you are still judging yourself only by the hardest moments behind you.
AutoFX WA has survived because I kept going.
Not perfectly.
Not without mistakes.
Not without hard seasons.
But with the willingness to learn, adjust and keep showing up.
And that is the message I would give to anyone starting out, whether it is in detailing, business or anything else that matters deeply to them.
Do not be scared of making mistakes.
Be scared of not learning from them.
Be scared of giving up on something that genuinely matters to you just because the road became harder than expected.
The master has fallen more times than the beginner has even tried.
That is not just a quote.
That is business.
That is detailing.
That is life.
And sometimes, the only reason you eventually become stronger is because you kept getting back up when it would have been easier not to.
A Message For Anyone Who Needs It
If you are reading this and you feel like you have fallen behind, made too many mistakes, or taken too long to become the person you wanted to be, give yourself a bit of grace.
Most people are carrying more than they show.
Business can be hard.
Family life can be hard.
Trying to build something meaningful can be hard.
And when something comes from the heart, every setback feels personal.
But a hard season does not mean you are finished. A mistake does not mean you are hopeless. A slow chapter does not mean the story is over.
Sometimes growth looks like getting through the day.
Sometimes progress is simply not giving up.
Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is stop punishing yourself for what went wrong and start asking what the lesson is.
You do not need to have everything worked out to move forward.
You just need to take the next honest step.
Learn what the hard moment was trying to teach you. Be kind enough to yourself to keep going. And remember that the people who eventually become strong are often the ones who have had to rebuild themselves more than once.
That does not make you weak.
It means you are still here.
And that counts for a lot.
For AutoFX WA, that same experience now carries through into Car Detailing Perth, Paint Correction Perth, Ceramic Coating Perth and Paint Protection Film Perth, where the work is still based on patience, preparation, judgement and learning from years of real cars, real problems and real results
